PWA welcomes students to undertake independent study projects with us. For more information, please contact George Benson, Director of Land Use, at 203-270-4276.

Everything can impact your drinking water, whether it is the chemicals you are putting on your lawn, the soaps you are using or even the car you are driving. Rain water picks up pollutants and those pollutants can get into your drinking water, the chemicals in the soaps that go down the drain will end up back into a water system and go through the hydrologic cycle bringing it right back into the aquifer that drinking water comes from!

New England’s Drinking Water

• Drinking water is obtained by drilling wells into the regions ground water or by pumping water from reservoirs or rivers
• The public water system is regulated nationally by the Safe Drinking Water Act
• When water falls to the earth in the form of rain, sleet, hail or snow, some of it runs off the surface of the ground and enters stormdrains or nearby streams, some of it falls into oceans, lakes, rivers and other water bodies, and some of it soaks into the ground. When water seeps into the ground, it moves downward due to gravity through the pore spaces found between soil particles and cracks in rock. Eventually, the water reaches a depth where the soil and rock are saturated with water. Water which is found in the saturated (or wet) part of the ground underneath the land surface is called, “ground water”
• A rock or soil formation that is capable of yielding enough ground water for human use is called an aquifer
• Wells are drilled deep into the ground until they reach the ground water

Private Well Owners

• Studies show that there is contamination in some wells from methyl-tertiary-butyl ether (MtBE), radon and arsenic
• Contaminates can not be identified by taste or odor
• It is the homeowners responsibility to periodically test for water contamination
• Some contaminants are naturally occruing due to the water making its way through the soil. The contaminants may include bacteria, radon, arsenic, uranium and other substances such as iron and magnesium
• Human activites may cause well water contamination from industrial/commercial activities, improper waste disposal, road silting and oil spills, use of fertilizers and pesticides, fueling of lawn equipment and household wastes

Steps to Protect your Well

• Make sure well is capped or sealed
• Periodically check well for cracking, corroding etc.
• Slop area around the well to drain surface runoff away from the well head
• Do not cut well casting below land surface
• Avoid using chemicals near the well area
* Inspect septic system as recommended

Water Conservation

• Repair leaky faucets
• Replace equipement, older equipment tends to not be as efficient as newer equipment
• Only run dishwasher when it is full
• Compost
• Take short showers
• Turn water off while brushing teeth or shaving
• Maximize natural vegetation outdoors
• Don’t cut lawn too short, longer blades of grass give shade to the soil improving moisutre retention
• Add compost to soil